The Fully Down: Don't Get Lost in a MomentDon't Get Lost in a Moment (2005)Fearless Records

Reviewer Rating: 2

Contributed by: AnchorsAnchors(others by this writer | submit your own)Published on January 31st 2006Some bands burst into the music world with originality and a fresh take on a genre, immediately making an impact and paving the way for other bands in years to come. The Fully Down is not one of those bands. In fact, almost the exact opposite, only further contributing to the increased homogenizatio.

Some bands burst into the music world with originality and a fresh take on a genre, immediately making an impact and paving the way for other bands in years to come. The Fully Down is not one of those bands. In fact, almost the exact opposite, only further contributing to the increased homogenization of music.

Wasting no time making Taking Back Sunday lyrics their own ("It's times like these, where silence can mean everything"), the Fully Down bounce into a brand of pop-rock that's all too familiar as of late. Multi-part harmonies, "clever" lyrics and song titles and basic instrumentation, it's just another chapter in a book first written long ago, and they match previous stories word for word.

Let's address the basic defense of this kind of band before we go any further. "It's catchy." We know, so are the crabs in Paris Hilton's pants, and I don't see anyone defending those. It's not enough anymore for something to catch your ear with melody, as any band can offer that much, there's simply got to be something beyond that to keep people coming back for repeated listens. Therein lies the problem with Get Lost in a Movement; one listen will offer you all you'll ever need to hear of the band, because next week, another band is going to release the exact same record to the exact same type of kids. It's only going to go away when people stop buying it, and right now, that's simply not happening. Apparently nobody requires any more of music they listen to than to have song titles like "Go to Heaven for the Climate, Hell for the Company." No, really guys, that's funny. Especially since you're the first to do it. Here's to being trendsetters!

The fact is the music is just as much a retread as the long song titles they employ. There's the more upbeat, bouncy pop-rock tracks, and the somewhat low tempo affairs which are supposed to be a departure, but ultimately fail. I'll give it to the band, they know how to write a harmony; the problem is that same harmony appears on every single song, so no matter how good it is the first time, you're sick of it by the twelfth. The one bright patch here is that some of the guitar work does deviate from standard three-chord fare, but as in the middle of "Plug in the Eliminator," but it seems to be more an attempt to diversify their sound for the sake of it than actually implement those solos in a way that would make sense.

It's good on the initial run though, but if you're going to push it any farther than that, you'd better be aware that the trails run thin.

Lumping this record in with TBS isn't really a fair comparison. Sure the vocal pitch and content is your usual fueled by ramen fare, but the remarkably upbeat guitar work is in my opinion phenomenal. Against me! is a better comparison of what they're aiming for; modern day skate punk with myspace ready lyrics. Also, you neglected to mention the pauses. The timing and tightness of the songs is great, especially live, and they know how to use it. If you want to label this catchy, go ahead, but thats only one of it's qualities.

JR

Anonymous (February 25, 2006)

fuck off all of you! the fully down is the shit!! you all just have nothing better to do then sit here on your computer and write hatful things about people you probably don't even know! just ask anyone fron kanata, ontario if they know who the fully down are and they will tell you that they are one of the best bands around and they can deffinatly fill a room when it comes to their concerts! so maybe you should acually sit down sometime and listen to them!

Cool band, if you ask me, the trendfollowers are the ones bashing them.
Good live show, solid music.

Anonymous (February 3, 2006)

i have to agree the first listen, though confusing with too many tempo changes and shit, wasnt awful. but the more i hear it, the more i want it to stop. me=not fully down. at this point it's safe to say i'm barely down. or maybe less than semi-down?

if there was a band called the fully down-sydrome. i'd check that shit out.
-TOBB

lame paris hilton comment. not funny, but i get the point you're trying to make.

and oh man, i need to give that guy who brought spazz into this discussion $30. i fucking love spazz. you know how hard it is to find sweatin to the oldies 3? fucking IMPOSSIBLE!

Anonymous (February 2, 2006)

SPAZZ was doing the long song title thing in the mid 90's.

-Ken

Anonymous (February 2, 2006)

So this band's shitty ad line says "If you have Iron Maiden and Thrice back to back on a mixtape, meet your new favorite band" or something close to that. It should say, "If you have thrice on a mixtape, you are a fucking idiot. Wait, you probably don't even know what a tape is. Sorry for the confusion."

I'm just glad somebody from my hometown got a record deal. Doesnt happen often in Ottawa. Although I would've like it better if the band Clock Strikes would've gotten a record contract. Those guys really deserve it.

Fuck this stupid band. They were on the bill to play at a small venue here in central PA (said venue is now closed) but upon their arrival the building apparently wasn't good enough for them or something so they told the promoter they were going to get gas and ended up skipping town.

I guess i'm glad they didn't play seeing as they suck, but I think it's fucking lame to rip off a struggling venue.

Anonymous (January 31, 2006)

I heard these guys years ago when I lived in Ottawa...I swear they used to sound much better than this slab o' shit.

ok. music is shitty. i dont even want to talk about that. what i want to talk about is why is the fucking cover art so god damned pathetic. this shit isnt even self released. fearless has a little bit of cash right? fearless couldnt see that this band had no fuckin artistic bone in their body and couldnt shell out a few bucks for a decent graphic artist or what the fuck?